Criminals who pretended to be police officers to con elderly and vulnerable victims out of more than £200,000 in a nationwide fraud have been jailed for more than 30 years.

The men were sentenced at Leeds Crown Court yesterday (Tuesday) for the offences which targeted people from Huddersfield, Bradford, Skegness, Oxford, Bournemouth, Barnsley, North Yorkshire, London, Hampshire, Surrey, Newark on Trent, Nottingham, Mansfield, Newquay, Worcester and Warwickshire.

A total of 25 victims were identified during the investigation by the Yorkshire and the Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit.

Officers from the unit also prevented four other people being conned out of £28,000 during the scam, with offences taking place between July 23 and September 15 2014.

Det Chief Inspector Stuart Spencer said: “This was part of an organised criminal network which was involved in a large scale conspiracy to commit fraud targeting elderly and vulnerable people.

“The actions of this group have had a devastating impact on the lives of the victims. The group abused the often trusting nature of people to defraud them out of large sums of money – often their life savings. Some of the victims have not had all of their money back.

“The criminals were very tenacious when committing their crimes. They would often call victims several times within a short space of time and would regularly check up on the status of transfers.

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“Some reported how they were contacted by several different aliases of police officers or bank officials in an attempt to further engage with them.”

Throughout the offending the group would call intended victims on their landlines with the caller identifying themselves as a police officer from the Metropolitan Police investigating a fraud.

They would then convince victims that their bank account had been compromised and that their money was in danger.

In doing this they would gain the trust of the victim and often instruct them to verify who they are by telling them to hang up the call and call the bank (using the number on the back of their card) or 999.

Another suspect would then pretend to be the bank or the 999 operator and the victim would be led to believe they are speaking to genuine bank officials or the police.

What they didn’t realise was that the suspects were still on the line and the victim was then told that the bank was involved in the scam and was convinced to lie to the bank tellers, should they be questioned about withdrawals or transfers.

The group would call intended victims on their landlines with the caller identifying themselves as a police officer from the Metropolitan Police

The victim was told not to tell anyone what they were doing as this could jeopardise the investigation, leaving the victim feeling isolated and alone.

The group would then use one of two methods to obtain money from victims:

One was to inform the victim they needed to go to their bank and withdraw a large amount of cash (usually between £5,000 - £20,000). The offenders would send someone around to the victim’s house to collect the cash. Victims were told that the person collecting the money was also a police officer.

The other was to tell the victim they needed to transfer a large amount of money (again, usually between £5,000 - £20,000) to another bank account provided by the suspect. Victims were given an account holder’s name, account number and sort code.

The full list of defendants and their sentences

Mahbub Aziz (Image: West Yorkshire Police)

Mahbub Aziz, 24 of Walden Street, London pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and was sentenced to two-and-a-half years.

Shahidur Ali (Image: West Yorkshire Police)

Shahidur Ali, 24, of Byng Street, London pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and was sentenced to six and a half years

Mohammed Hadi (Image: West Yorkshire Police)

Mohammed Hadi, 34, of Uamvar Street, London was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud and acquiring criminal property. He was sentenced to eight years.

Mohammed Noor (Image: West Yorkshire Police)

Mohammed Noor, 23, of Crowndale Road, London admitted conspiracy to defraud and was sentenced to 21 months.

Mohammed Naahe (Image: West Yorkshire Police)

Mohammed Naahe, 50, of Jodrell Road, London admitted conspiracy to defraud, acquiring criminal property, entering into a money laundering arrangement and possession of an article to be used in fraud. He was sentenced to seven years, two months.